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Posts With The Most: 12 Cool & Creative Traffic Bollards

29 Sep

[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Traffic Bollards Leicester 1
Never mind the bollards? Uh-uh: these traffic stoppers halt wayward vehicles like no traffic cone can. The best bollards, though, are designed to look great!

Traffic Bollards Leicester 2

Traffic Bollards Leicester 3

Leicester City Council faced a conundrum in early 2014: children walking to and from Whitehall Primary school were endangered by vehicular road traffic. The street had no sidewalks; only a row of metal traffic bollards. The council’s ingenious solution was to modify the bollards to look like children, many wearing the school’s red uniforms. Kudos to Flickr user KiranParmar for capturing these kinda creepy “Stepford Children” in their native habitat.

Traffic Bollards Leicester 4

Traffic Bollards Leicester 5

Traffic Bollards Leicester 6

Not only do the modified bollards remind drivers to be aware of pedestrians, the scheme is much cheaper than laying down sidewalks. One would hope older ex-students don’t try to re-enact the infamous mailbox scene from the 1993 film Dazed and Confused… a metal bollard beats a wooden baseball bat every time.

Lean Design

Leaning Tower Pisa Traffic Bollard

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” and when traffic tilts your traffic bollard, make it look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa of course! Kate McGovern snapped this tilted but still functional bollard somewhere in Philadelphia. Compromised or not, the bollard seems in better shape than the surrounding pavement while providing some unexpected visual interest.

Minions Of Bollards

Traffic Bollards Penang Malaysia 1

Traffic Bollards Penang Malaysia 2

Traffic Bollards Penang Malaysia 3

Who knew the 2010 movie Despicable Me was so popular… in Penang, Malaysia! Located on Soo Hong Lane off Armenian Street in Penang’s inner George Town neighborhood, the charming street art installation was painted by Lithuanian-born artist Ernest Zacharevic early in 2013 as part of a city-sanctioned campaign to beautify Soo Hong Lane. Unfortunately, Zacharevic had to be recalled to repaint at least one of the not-so-despicable bollards which was defaced – literally – by vandals.

LEGO My Bollard!

LEGO Man Traffic Bollards Le CyKlop Paris 1

LEGO Man Traffic Bollards Le CyKlop Paris 2

LEGO Man Traffic Bollards Le CyKlop Paris 3

LEGO Man Traffic Bollards Le CyKlop Paris 4

One popular bollard design features a narrowed area near the top to facilitate the attachment of ropes, chains and the like. Coincidentally, these particular bollards bear a cursory resemblance to LEGO men… and a little artistry (plus some yellow paint) enhances the effect even more. The oddly one-eyed LEGO men bollards above come to us courtesy of French street artist Le CyKlop (which explains much) and can be found along the Canal de l’Ourcq in Paris

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Posts With The Most 12 Cool Creative Traffic Bollards

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[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Paint Me White Again: Tunnel Type Graffiti Taunts Authorities

28 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

paint me white again

Well known for stenciling big block-lettered phrases on walls around his native Newscastle, this piece is unusually blunt (as well as hilarious), amounting to a multi-part conversation between the artist and the city.

street art blank wall

street art painted over

Even better than the original ‘COME ON AND PAINT ME WHITE AGAIN’ dare is the later response after the municipality indeed whitewashed the first work: ‘BOOORING’, using his same signature typography in black paint.

joke around the corner

mobster street art checklist

mobstr newcastle reblog this

While not all of his work is quite so meta-minded as this series, this sequence remains a great illustration of how graffiti is generally temporary as well as contextual, and can have elements of humor and self-reflection beyond simple tagging. Some of his works are best seen in video form rather than via photographs, hence a few fun short films below.

A self-described minimalist, Mobstr explains the origins of his nom de plume, which are none too surprising: “It is a play on the term mobster which is someone who deals in organised crime. Most of my work is illegal however a lot of organisation goes into it. So as a joke I use the idea of it being organised (art) crime.” Also, he had a lobster named mobster.

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NO AD Augmented Reality App Replaces Billboards with Art

27 Sep

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

NO AD APP 1

Subway commuters are inundated with advertisements on virtually every surface they come across along their daily journey, from the stairs leading to each platform to the passenger cars themselves. Places where a captive audience will stand around staring at the walls are an advertiser’s feast, but not everyone wants that kind of consumerism shoved down their throats every day. Enter ‘NO AD,‘ an augmented reality app that allows you to replace those ads with art.

NO AD APP 2

NO AD APP 3

Created by The Subway Art Blog and The Heavy Projects, which got dozens of artists to participate, the app for smartphones and tablets enables users to look at their environment in an altered way. Hold up your device and the ad that’s right in front of you will transform into a work of art before your eyes.

NO AD APP 4

NO AD APP 5

Available for free on iOS and Android, NO AD works with dozens of ads, turning your commute into a ‘curated art experience. You can even watch a short film. The app developers plan to update the featured art frequently to keep up with the frantic pace of urban advertising.

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NO AD APP 7

While viewing the world through an electronic device isn’t exactly ideal, especially if hundreds of commuters started clogging up the subway stations to stand around holding their tablets at arms’ length, it’s a neat example of high-tech DIY Urbanism.

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Dress Down: Wild Women’s Dresses Made of Trash, Trees & More

26 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

state new york dress

State of Dress is part fashion, part art and part personal mission, an attempt to capture the essence of all fifty States in the US through a series of site-specific dress designs tailored to each location. Robin Barcus Slonina is the multi-disciplinary artist behind this project and the star of an upcoming documentary of her travels and work.

state dress ny nevada

Some, like the New York City garbage bag dress, are intentionally humorous, referencing absurd couture mixed as well as ubiquitous street-side trash bags. Others, like the Nevada casino chip gown, are plays on local pastimes – in this case: the gaming and gambling cultures for which the state is most well-known.

state dress grass leaves

state dress pine cones

While artificial materials make up some of the dresses, others are constructed from local organic elements, like Iowa’s prairie dress and Minnesota’s corn dress, each set in (and seeming to spring up from) an apt natural landscape.

state dress natural materials

state dress willow wyoming

Other states with lots of nature likewise ended up with environmental materials, from willows in Wyoming to pine cones in Maine and pine trees in Wisconsin.

state garbage dress design

The creation of each piece of apparel comes with its own story. Here is a bit more from the artist about the making of the NYC trash bag dress: “The first time I ever visited New York as a young artist was during a massive garbage strike, and it left a lasting impression on me to see mountains of garbage piled so high on busy city sidewalks. To me, the sanitation workers that mange these tiny mountains every week are the true heroes of the city.”

state nyc trash bags

“However, by no means did I mean any disrespect or want to create something ugly for this metropolis of art, beauty and fashion. I therefore strived to create a jet-black, fashionable New York dress, that just happened to be made from garbage bags. To me, this piece represents all the dramatic contrasts inherent to New York: wealth and poverty, art and homelessness – beauty and trash. To fill the bags, I used another New York icon – crumpled-up New York Times newspapers.”

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Aerial Urbanism: Hyper-Dense ‘Cloud City’ Redefines Skylines

25 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

cloud city side view

A complex spanning in seemingly all directions, this sky-oriented, cloud-shaped, forward-thinking design has just won the Shenzhen Super City Competition in China.

cloud city in rain

cloud city project proposal

Dubbed Cloud Citizen, this winning proposal was a collaboration Urban Future Organization and CR-Design in conjunction with a team from Chalmers Technical University.

cloud city parks peds

cloud city from above

The design is aimed at tackling the Shenzhen Bay, an area adjacent to Hong Kong facing long-standing and still-growing issues of urban density and pollution. Of course, the visually-striking aspects also help form an iconic identity from this mega-structure as well.

cloud city at night

cloud city boardwalk water

The idea involves suspending residential, commercial and institutional nodes of activity in the air, interspersing homes with cultural facilities and leisure centers and allowing small pieces to add up to a larger whole. Instead of a straight vertical skyscraper, the organic form branches out with three-dimensional complexity to create interconnections in the sky.

cloud city site plan

cloud city design concept

cloud city winning design

Aside from its mesmerizing aesthetics, the project boasts a slew of sustainable strategies: “All 170 hectares of the 680 meter-tall super city work in cooperation with nature to make that future a reality; lush gardens act as ‘green lungs’ connecting each of Cloud Citizen’s public spaces; built-in mechanisms harvest rainwater, and power the city with solar, wind, and algae-based energy, special sections of the city will store carbon and filter particles from the air, while housing sanctuaries for plant life; localized food production modules and housing will cut down on carbon emissions from transportation. These diverse elements work together to create a harmonious vision of the cities of the future.”

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Park(ing) Day 2014: Citizens Reclaim the Streets for Fun

25 Sep

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Parking Day Dallas 4

On September 19th, 2014, residents of cities around the world rushed into the streets to reclaim what is rightfully theirs, taking urban spaces back for their own enjoyment. Well, sort of. Park(ing) Day is an annual event that encourages temporarily converting public parking spaces into parks, playgrounds, venues and other recreational spaces, and it’s usually officially sanctioned by the cities in which it’s held. Here’s how a dozen cities around the world celebrated, from Quito, Ecuador to Dublin, Ireland.

Sydney, Australia
Parking Day Sydney 1

Parking Day Sydney 2.jp

Oversized benches double as chalkboards in Sydney, along with more conventional park setups.

Paris, France
Parking Day France 1

Parking Day France 2

In the cities of Paris and Nancy, France, Park(ing) Day participants played video games in makeshift living rooms, displayed their art, and created iconic Parisian cafes (in the street rather than the sidewalk.)

Dublin, Ireland
Parking Day Dublin 1

Parking Day Dublin 2

Literal garden beds, gay pride displays and a beautiful turf-covered sculptural bench made appearances in Dublin.

Montreal, Canada
Parking Day Montreal 2

Parking Day Montreal 1

Parking Day Montreal 3

Puppet show or game of croquet, anyone?

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Parking Day 2014 Citizens Reclaim The Streets For Fun

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Waltz on the Walls: Dancers Perform Daring Vertical Stunts

25 Sep

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

bandaloop3

The first-person perspective seen on this video of two dancers vaulting effortlessly off the side of Oakland’s City Hall building might make you a little dizzy. Secured to the 18-story structure’s roof with safety lines, the duo run, flip and seemingly fly, captured from various angles that can be a tad disorienting.

Waltz on the Walls 1

Waltz on the Walls 3

The pair are members of the Bandaloop vertical choreography dance company, which staged the performance for the Art + Soul Festival in Oakland, California. GoPro cameras capture the action in all its elegance.

Waltz on the Walls 2

Waltz on the Walls 4

The company aims to “re-imagine dance,” performing these seemingly weightless feats on skyscrapers, bridges, billboards, cliffs and historical sights. Says founder and artistic director Amelia Rudolph, “They say what we do is death-defying. I’d say it’s life-affirming.”

Waltz on the Walls 5

Bandaloop Sundial Bridge

The images and the videos of the performances are breathtaking, particularly those of dancers rappelling off the 217-foot Santiago Calatrava ‘Sundial Bridge’ in Redding, seen above. Check them all out at the Bandaloop website.

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Color-Changing Hammocks: Swing on 20 LED-Lit Circular Chairs

24 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

circular art swing project

Transforming an outdoor recreational space into an interactive evening wonderland, this series of variously-sized swings (and accompanying activities) encourages playful nighttime interactions.

circular swing park area

circular swing set design

Designed by Howler + Yoon Architecture (images by John Horner Photography) and located at Lawn on D in Boston, the focal point of the installation is the set of round hammocks filled with LEDs that change color as you sit on, swing or spin them.

circular round color changing

circular urban swing art

The lights use customized micro-controllers, converting motion into changes in hue and luminosity, starting as a standard white by default. Also on offer: free wireless internet and various backyard-type ball games.

circular swing art installation

circular crescent moon swings

circular light up hammock

The swings come in three sizes and are set to be on display (and open to the public for play) through November, but it might be best to enjoy them now while the summer weather still lingers. But don’t worry: rain or snow, they will leave a light on.

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Rebel Architecture: 6-Part Series on Global Guerilla Urbanism

23 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

architecture spider

In a series of six superb videos, Al Jazeera explores the gritty reality of architects and urban designers as activists in destinations from Vietnam and Nigeria to Pakistan and Brazil. Five of these 25-minute episodes are embedded in full as videos below, with summaries to let you see which you may wish to view – that said, each of the six is well worth watching!

abandoned warehouse spain

In Guerrilla Architect, Santiago Cirugeda, an architect from Seville who has dedicated his career to reclaiming urban spaces for the public, deals with difficult realities in “austerity-hit Spain, where the state has retreated and around 500,000 new buildings lie empty.”

Fortunately, he notes: “In times of crisis, people come together to find collective solutions.” One of his challenges, as covered in this mini-documentary, is converting an abandoned half-finished factory into a vibrant new cultural center.

architecture of violence

In The Architecture of Violence, Eyal Weizman “explains architecture’s key role in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the evolution of urban warfare.” He explains that “architecture and the built environment is a kind of a slow violence. The occupation is an environment that was conceived to strangulate Palestinian communities, villages and towns, to create an environment that would be unliveable for the people there.”

In this episode, local Israelis and Palestinians explain in candid interviews “how it feels to live in a landscape where everything, from walls and roads, terraces and sewage, to settlements and surveillance are designed to ensure the separation of the two peoples, while simultaneously maintaining control.”

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Rebel Architecture 6 Part Series On Global Guerilla Urbanism

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Phantom Monuments: Haunting Works of Light Graffiti by Sola

23 Sep

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Sola Light Graffiti 17

Swirls and pillars of light hover in fields or against dark urban backdrops like phantom monuments, captured on camera in a way that just can’t be perceived by the human eye. UK-based artist Sola literally paints with light, his amorphous creations seeming to take on three dimensions for just a split second as if the light itself has gathered up a mass of its own.

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Sola Light Graffiti 3

Sola Light Graffiti 1

Sola Light Graffiti 14

Looking for an outlet for personal expression led Sola to professional photography, documenting the sports, bands and lifestyles that he was into. Eventually, though, he wanted something that would give him more control over the creative process.

Sola Light Graffiti 2

Sola Light Graffiti 4

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Sola Light Graffiti 15

“Then I found light painting. Quite by accident one night while shooting landscapes of the urban environment and instantly I knew it was what I’d been looking for. I like to keep things real. I shoot with digital cameras, yes, but I employ principles of analogue film technology – in that once I’ve made an image I don’t change it any more than I could in a darkroom and therefore what you see, is what I shoot.”

Sola Light Graffiti 7

Sola Light Graffiti 8

“I believe there’s a real magic to creating something wondrous that’s ‘real.’ Sure, there’s a place for post production in this world but on the whole, you won’t find any here. To the point that even if I am caught in the scene the image is thrown away. I aim to create images that allow the viewer to suspend their reality and simply enjoy the energy and mystery of the image.”

Sola LIght Graffiti 9

Sola Light Graffiti 16

See lots of more Sola’s work, including collaborations with NIKE and other brands, at LightBombing.com.

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